Five tough ethics issues in Bergdahl swap

By Frida Ghitis

Updated 8:30 PM ET, Wed June 4, 2014

Guantanamo detainees swapped5 photos

Guantanamo detainees swapped for Bergdahl – These are photos obtained by WikiLeaks that match the names of the detainees released by the Department of Defense. Their release was in exchange for the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl who was being held by the Taliban. The Department of Defense would neither confirm nor deny their accuracy. Khair Ulla Said Wali Khairkhwa was an early member of the Taliban in 1994 and was interior minister during the Taliban's rule. He was arrested in Pakistan and was transferred to Guantanamo in May 2002. During questioning, Khairkhwa denied all knowledge of extremist activities.

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Guantanamo detainees swapped5 photos

Guantanamo detainees swapped for Bergdahl – Mullah Mohammad Fazl commanded the main force fighting the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance in 2001, and served as chief of army staff under the Taliban regime. Fazl was detained after surrendering to Abdul Rashid Dostam, the leader of Afghanistan's Uzbek community, in November 2001. He was transferred into U.S. custody in December 2001 and was one of the first arrivals at Guantanamo, where he was assessed as having high intelligence value.

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Guantanamo detainees swapped5 photos

Guantanamo detainees swapped for Bergdahl – Mullah Norullah Noori served as governor of Balkh province in the Taliban regime and played some role in coordinating the fight against the Northern Alliance. Like Fazl, Noori was detained after surrendering to Dostam, the Uzbek leader, in 2001.

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Guantanamo detainees swapped5 photos

Guantanamo detainees swapped for Bergdahl – Abdul Haq Wasiq was the deputy chief of the Taliban regime's intelligence service. Wasiq claimed, according to an administrative review, that he was arrested while trying to help the United States locate senior Taliban figures. He denied any links to militant groups.

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Guantanamo detainees swapped5 photos

Guantanamo detainees swapped for Bergdahl – Mohammad Nabi Omari was a minor Taliban official in Khost Province and was the Taliban's chief of communications and helped al Qaeda members escape from Afghanistan to Pakistan. He also said that he had worked with a U.S. operative named Mark to try to track down Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

Story highlights

Ghitis: Another issue: If Bergdahl left his post, does "leave no one behind" apply to deserters?

She asks: What cost is too high in saving a hostage? Israel contended with this many times

Ghitis: Does the life of one person we know warrant losing others we might not know?

Did President Barack Obama do the right thing when he agreed to trade Taliban leaders in exchange for Bowe Bergdahl?

The issue has become a weapon in the partisan political arsenal and it will surely join the Benghazi incident in election season. And yet, the Bergdahl deal is something quite different.

When Obama approved the release of dangerous, top-value Guantanamo prisoners in exchange for an American soldier captured under mysterious circumstances, he negotiated a tangle of competing moral principles. If it were possible to wrestle with these issues in a nonpartisan way, the country might gain from this difficult experience.

Frida Ghitis

The Bergdahl-Taliban trade will be discussed in ethics classes for years to come.

Here are some of the hard questions:

1) America holds two principles high on its moral agenda. First, the U.S. does not leave any of its soldiers behind in the battlefield. Second, the U.S. does not negotiate with terrorists. But what happens when the two principles collide? Which matters more?

Obama has made his position clear: "We don't leave men and women in uniform behind." The administration argues it did not negotiate with terrorists. And although the United States does not classify the Taliban as a terrorist organization, the Taliban, including those released in the deal, have worked with al Qaeda and have had a major role in killing thousands of civilians.

Released detainees arrive in Qatar – CNN has obtained photos from the purported Twitter account of Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid. The photos purportedly show the arrival of the Guantanamo detainees arriving in Doha, Qatar, after being released in exchange for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. This image allegedly shows Mullah Norullah Noori.

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Photos: Released Guantanamo Taliban detainees arrive in Qatar4 photos

Released detainees arrive in Qatar – The Twitter account says that this photo is of Khair Ulla Said Wali Khairkhwa.

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Released detainees arrive in Qatar – According to the Twitter account, this is Mullah Mohammad Fazl arriving in Qatar.

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Photos: Released Guantanamo Taliban detainees arrive in Qatar4 photos

Released detainees arrive in Qatar – Mullah Norullah Noori and Abdul Haq Wasiq can be seen in this photo, according to the Twitter account.

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EXPAND GALLERY

2) Does the rule of "leave no one behind" apply to deserters?

We don't know much about how Bergdahl came to become a prisoner. But many of his comrades in the field say Bergdahl walked away from his post by choice. He reportedly emailed his father before leaving, "The future is too good to waste on lies" and left a note in his tent saying he was leaving, according to The New York Times.

Obama says: "We still get an American soldier back if he is held in captivity. Period. Full stop. We don't condition that."

It's an unsettling decision, particularly for the relatives of those who may have died trying to save him. But the rule sends a message to other American soldiers that their country takes this solemn commitment very seriously.

If Bergdahl is a deserter, he should face justice on that count. If his desertion caused America such an awful price, he -- and the country -- will have to live with that.

3) Does the life of one man we know warrant losing the lives of many whom we don't know?

There is an ugly truth hanging over any prisoner exchange with an active enemy: It saves one life, but it is likely to cost many more. If the trade were a simple mathematical calculation, it would make no sense. The U.S. says 17%, perhaps as many as 29%, of those released from Guantanamo Bay have turned to terrorism.

Still, they went ahead with the deal, and the public supported it. Shalit had become an Israeli icon, everyone's child. But the fact is that one person, with a name, a family, a face, somehow takes more value than other nameless ones who may die later as the result of the trade.

4) If a person should be saved, what cost is too high? Is there a limit?

Just how much is one American soldier worth? As far as we know, the deal with Bergdahl brought five of the top Taliban leaders to freedom -- although they are supposed to remain in Qatar for one year. Other countries have paid large amounts of cash as ransom to free their citizens. The price is not only the amount exchanged at the moment of the trade. It is also what happens with that currency whether it's people or money. Unrest in parts of North Africa, which has left hundreds, perhaps thousands dead, was financed in part by ransom money paid by various governments.

5) If a prisoner exchange is politically costly but morally correct, should a politician support it?

None of these is an easy question. Each country answers them in the light of its own values and priorities. America would do well to examine them in a nonpolitical way, as a crafting of the nation's beliefs, and a guide for making moral choices in the future.